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Building With Dominaria’s White Cards [Part 2]

To begin, I want to give my apologies for not posting this follow up article on Friday! I was in the process of writing it but completely forgot that we would actually have decklists to look through after that weekend. With that being said, I’ve compiled my top two White decklists from the past couple of weeks, and that is what we’re going to be looking at today.

I really, really love this deck. In my latest article, I shared a decklist I had come up with that utilized Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy, Shalai, and Lyra alongside token makers to kill the opponent. This deck chooses to cut the token cards for great creatures and Karn, a choice which i really like. Of course, with less tokens and more vehicles and noncreature spells, Shanna isn’t used to her maximum efficiency, but that might be ok in this deck. The non-tokens version is also much stronger against Goblin Chainwhirler, although the card still poses some problems.

The choice to play Llanowar Elves is one that I really like, as it allows you to pump out super powerful threats like Thrashing Brontodon on turn two or double spell on turn 3. Llanowar Elves adds alot of speed to the deck, which I think will be crucial in this format.

The Aethersphere Harvesters are interesting, as they are a good way to combat Red Aggro, but they seem sort of wasted in this deck. Besides Llanowar Elves, the rest of our creatures are decently sized, and having to tap a creature to crew this in the early game on defense doesn’t seem ideal, especially in the face of Abrade.

Another card I’m iffy about is Ixalan’s Binding. I feel like the deck builder here was trying to pull the deck in too many different directions. Including Seal Away and Ixalan’s Binding is really odd to me, as this deck doesn’t strike me as one that wants to sit back in the mid game. It feels alot like we should be deploying early threats and then using minimal removal to push through the last points of damage. In an aggro deck, Seal Away isn’t that good, because if our opponent’s creatures are tapped, it means they have comfortably stabilized and feel free to attack. A card like Cast Out would do alot more here, as it can be cycled away early if you need more gas, or cast as a removal spell in the midgame.

The other deck I want to talk about today is Team Lotus Box’s WB Aggro.

After a 5-0 on MTGO this morning, I can safely say that this is one of, if not the best deck in the format. In all of my games (granted, luck played a part) I felt as though I was doing much more powerful things than my opponent. I haven’t tested against Mono Red yet, but cards like Knight of Malice and Fatal Push to stabilize early, along with Lyra to take over the game should help the matchup alot.

One card in this deck that really impressed me is Karn, Scion of Urza. Ok ok, people have been talking about this card since it was spoiled, but I hadn’t played with it yet, and it adds so much to this deck. Against the control decks, Karn was a house, oftentimes drawing a card or two and then getting taken out by a Vraska’s Contempt or a Cast Out, opening the door for my threats to take them out.

In terms of changes to the deck, I feel that more Duresses in the sideboard would be great. While Doomfall was ok and took out a Lyra once, I think that Duress simply has more applications in more matchups, and is significantly better in those matchups. Fumigate also strikes me as odd, and I think there are better cards against Mono Red, but it might be there for Tokens and White Aggro Strategies. Either way, I think going up to 4 Duresses in the board is the right call.

Another thing I’d like to see changed is the singleton Thopter Arrest. If you’ve been reading my articles, you know that I’m not the biggest fan of singletons. If we are already maxed out on everything (barring obvious things like the fourth legendary) why do we need this one card? When is Thopter Arrest insane? Clearly Cast Out is better on average, and when is Thopter Arrest really that much better? Honestly, I can see a variety of things in this slot. Another Lyra would help the Red matchups and make hitting a five drop more likely, but another Cast Out would probably be best, as it has the ability to cycle when it isn’t good.

Overall, I think this deck is incredibly powerful, and has incredible potential in this metagame. I really hope that I don’t get crushed in Toronto because people adapt too quickly, but after witnessing the power firsthand, I can’t help but think that this is the best deck in the meta.

As always, I hope you enjoyed! Good luck with whatever Magic adventures you have coming up, and have a great rest of your week.